Couple adds 180-year-old log cabin timbers to Saugatuck home

The cumulative effects of snow, wind and rain for more than 150 years give Rick Haver and Sue Heberling's still-developing kitchen a timeless character that can't be found in a home-improvement store.

Timbers hand-hewn nearly 180 years ago for a mountain cabin in Rich Creek, Va., are part of the couple's 1,900-square-foot home being built in Saugatuck.

A handful of 800-pound timbers have survived from the Wiley family cabin built when Andrew Jackson was in the White House. Untold generations of mountain folk called it home until the structure was disassembled and moved to a West Virginia salvage yard.

Haver visited the salvage yard, Vintage Log & Lumber Inc. in May and purchased the timbers for about $20,000. The 24-ton payload was trucked nearly 640 miles to Saugatuck.

The trip was uneventful once out of West Virginia.

"The scariest part is the coal trucks going 70 mph on these windy, narrow back roads," Haver said.

It is the fourth log cabin Haver has reconstructed: Two are in Pennsylvania and the other in New Hampshire.

"These old cabins are giant works of folk art," he said.

Haver, who makes a living building custom homes, is making the 360-square-foot cabin the centerpiece of the home he started building in June. His architectural anomaly, with its three distinct sections -- log cabin, stone lodge and clapboard add-on -- is nearing completion.

"It's hard for people to understand we want a new house, but we want it to look old," Sue Heberling said.

The house rises on a lot next to another decidedly unique home the couple completed and moved into four years ago. They'll sell that one when their latest project is finished.

It is truly a marriage of old and new: Oak beams blend seamlessly with a concrete kitchen counter along the west wall. Nobel Concrete Inc. of Jenison designed it to complement mortar used between the timbers.

Built on tradition

Traditional building practices are the hallmark of Rick Haver Woodworking, the Saugatuck business Haver runs with wife, Sue.

They restored two other houses in the Saugatuck-Douglas area. One, built in the 1860s, is where they lived six years. The other was home to the couple for one year. They reside in a custom home Haver built four years ago. It, too, is a fusion of old and new under one roof.

"Nothing excites me more than restoring old houses and building new houses that incorporate the designs, forms and details that make these new structures appear as if they have been part of the landscape forever," said Haver, who builds about two custom homes a year.

His work has been recognized five times by the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society as a Heritage Preservation Award winner for restorations, additions and new construction.

"We don't build houses to turn them. We build them to fit into the environment and to make them look like they've always been there," said Haver, 56. "It's kind of a restful, soothing feeling when you're inside."

The house sits between towering maple trees they refused to cut down. Builders often do not want the hassle of working around mature trees and have them removed.

"We had to design and site the house between the two maples, so we had to go long and narrow but also have different depths and heights, so it doesn't look boring," Sue Heberling said.

"People can't get past the idea that this is a new house," she said. "People ask 'OK, but what did the house look like before?' Sometimes, you just give up and say 'you know, it was an old dump.'"

Antiques she has collected since college fill rooms of their home and will be transferred to the new structure once the interior is finished.

Home sweat home

Haver works tirelessly on the home each day, assisted by a handful of dedicated subcontractors. He is picky to be sure; just ask the cabinetmaker Haver insisted use wood from two wild black cherry trees cut down for the driveway.

The house itself was designed with one unwavering principle: It had to include the log cabin.

To put his plan into action, Haver went to Vintage Log & Lumber, which has log homes, barns and other wood structures stored in an area the size of 10 football fields.

Assembly here did not begin for several weeks. The key to a successful rebuild is having the ends of each log numbered and tagged so they correctly match during reassembly. The foundation and floor were intact before cabin walls went up.

"They brought the logs in, spread them all over the property to read the tags," Haver said.

A boom truck lifted and set the logs in place like Lincoln Logs. Gaps are filled with wire mesh and a mix that includes mortar and portland sand. Haver tapped a seasoned forester to create a window opening with a chainsaw; quite the challenge given each log's girth, Haver said.

"Set-up takes two hours per row, and there are 100 rows," Haver said.

"It's hard work."

Though Haver did not have to rely on friends to set logs in place, he appreciates what the Wiley clan likely experienced back when Advil and BenGay didn't exist.

Trees roughly the same diameter were cut down and cut to length with a hand saw, the sides smoothed with a broadax and corners notched before each log was set in place.

"Four guys could pick up a log and carry it around, but it's not easy, and I don't need spinal compression," he smiled.